The Michael Family Musings: Nate's birth story and first month

Nate’s birth story

Since I had a planned c-section this time around, there really isn’t a whole lot to Nate’s birth story. We had the date set for about 2 months prior to his birth. The entire night before he was born, I didn’t sleep. I sat up and looked at my phone and watched movies on my laptop. I was way too nervous to sleep!

Since I couldn’t eat that morning, we got up at 4 am, got dressed, loaded up the car, and checked into the hospital at 5 am. We had dropped Mia off at my in-laws the night before so that we wouldn’t have to wake her up insanely early. Once we got to the hospital, we were put in a labor and delivery room for about 2 hours. They did blood work, started my IV, and hooked up the monitors. I did a lot of paperwork. My doctor finally came in to talk to us right before 7 am.

At about 7:15, they walked us back to the OR. This was different from my c-section with Mia. Since I hadn’t planned a surgical birth with her, I had already had an epidural and had to be wheeled back to the OR. Walking in was strange for sure!

I got my spinal and laid down on the table. They let Jason come in about 10 minutes later and got started. I was shaking really hard (a reaction I always have when I get IVs), so the anesthesiologist actually had to hold my arms down a good portion of the time in order to get accurate heart rate and blood pressure readings. At 7:36 am, they pulled Nate out!

He didn’t cry right away, but he was making noise. They took him to get cleaned up and I heard a nurse say “look at all that red hair!”. I just laughed because I definitely wasn’t expecting another red-headed baby! Once they started rubbing him with the towels, he started crying. They brought him over and put him on my chest. He immediately starting trying to nurse. I held him for about 10 minutes, but I was shaking so hard I was worried I’d drop him, so I asked Jason to take him after that. Jason and Nate stayed in the room almost the entire time with me. Once I got back to the L&D room after, I was able to feed Nate for the first time.

I did have a little more bleeding than they had expected, so they had to give me medication during the surgery. That medicine ended up causing me to spike a fever, so I stayed in labor and delivery for another 10 or so hours after having Nate before they moved me to a post-partum room. The fever broke by that night, but I was irritated at having to be in the L&D room for that long. My mom was waiting in the L&D room after the surgery, and throughout the day we saw the rest of our immediate family. Mia finally got to meet her brother around lunchtime. She was so excited!

We stayed in the hospital until Friday afternoon (he was born Tuesday morning) before we were finally discharged to come home. I was so ready to be back in our own space and to have Mia back! While she visited every day I was in the hospital, I really missed her. It had been the longest I’d ever been away from her, and that was hard.

Overall, it was a more positive and less traumatic birth experience than the one I had with Mia. My recovery has been a little tougher this time, but that’s not totally shocking. Trying to recover from major abdominal surgery and keep up with an active toddler is a challenge! I’m just glad that Nate is here and healthy, and we are enjoying life as a family of 4!

Since I didn't do a post for the last 4 weeks of my pregnancy, here is the last photo of Nate on the inside, at 40 weeks exactly. This was taken about an hour before his birth. The second picture was taken about an hour after his birth back in the L&D room.

Nate, Month One

Stats:

Weight: At birth, Nate weighed 9 pounds 9 ounces. When we left the hospital 4 days later, he was at 9 pounds 1 ounce. At his 2 week check-up, he was just shy of 10 pounds. I don’t know his weight now, but I assume he’s probably in the neighborhood of 11 pounds.

Height: He was 21.5 inches at birth and 22 inches at his 2 week check-up.

Size: Size 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. He wore newborn diapers for about a day at the hospital before they brought us size 1’s!

Appearance: Nate looks a lot like Mia did as a newborn. He has strawberry blonde hair like she did, but he does have more of it. We haven’t seen any birthmarks yet. He does have the baby acne for now, poor guy! I think he might look a little more like me than Mia did at his age, but he still looks more like Jason to me in general.

Food:

Nate is exclusively breastfed, and has never had to have formula. He is an excellent nurser. In fact, when he was born it was the first thing he tried to do when they put him on my chest. He eats about every 3 hours during the day and every 4-5 hours at night. He normally nurses for about 20 minutes, but his feedings have ranged in length from 15-45 minutes.

During the day, he usually nurses around 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, 9 pm and 11 pm. We usually have one middle of the night feeding around 4 am. This schedule does shift some, but this is approximately what it’s been for the past 2 weeks or so.

Starting around 7 pm, he doesn’t really want to be put down, and he mostly only wants held by me. This can get exhausting, particularly when I want to take a shower.

Sleep:

Nate is still sleeping a lot during the day, but in the past week or so we’ve been getting a lot more alert time. He’ll normally eat, be awake for about an hour, and then sleep for about 2 hours. I don’t really have him on a schedule yet, but that’s usually how it works out.

When he was first born, and for the first week and a half or so, he had his nights and days mixed up. He’d sleep all day (unless he was hungry) and spend most of the night awake. Thankfully he got in a rhythm! Normally I’ll feed him around 11 pm for the last time, and he’ll sleep until 3 or 4 am. We’ll do that one middle of the night feeding, and then he’ll sleep until about 7 am. It’s still hard for me having my sleep interrupted, but it’s definitely better than being up all night!

He does like to be swaddled at night, but he likes a looser swaddle, and he has to have his hands free.

Milestones:

He can roll from his back to his sides.

He seems to enjoy tummy time unless I do it right before a feeding.

He seems to be able to see us pretty well, and he turns his head to familiar voices.

His umbilical cord stump fell off at 2.5 weeks.

He is already pretty good at holding his head up. He is super determined!

Nate had his first holiday! We celebrated Christmas this month.

Things I want to remember about this month:

How I felt the first time I saw him.

He loves to be snuggled, and he already seems to be a mama’s boy!

After his bath, he always has a tiny little mohawk.

Even though I know it wasn’t a social smile, he smiled at me once when I was talking to him.

How he always sleeps with his hands near his face.

The noises he makes when he’s breastfeeding. I love those sounds!

The first time Mia and Nate met. Such an emotional moment for me!

How Mia is adjusting:

I should start out by saying that Mia loves her little brother. She always wants to help bring clean diapers and clothes, help with his bath, and she wants to hold him any chance she gets. She’s always wanting to kiss him and “read” to him, and she loves talking to him. It is so sweet to watch their relationship develop. I know she’ll be an amazing big sister!

That being said, we have definitely had some behavioral issues since bringing Nate home. She’s had a lot more attitude, our old punishments no longer seem to be effective, and she throws a lot more tantrums. It’s honestly nothing I wasn’t expecting, but it can make for some pretty long days. I’d say in the past week or so we’ve started to see SOME improvement, but it’s slow going. At first she was fighting bed time, but that has at least gotten better. I know this has been a tough transition for her, but I honestly hope it keeps getting better for my sanity’s sake!

Photos from his first month!